How I hit a 100 day streak on Duolingo and built a better sleep routine (and how you can too)

One simple trick helped me build a great new habit and skill.

So, my mantra in 2025 is to be 1% better every day, and incrementally improve myself to be closer to the person I really want to be.

I was really pleased this week to hit a 100 day learning streak on Duolingo, the language learning app that so many of us have tried (and failed) to get really into.

Duolingo is a great way to learn a new language!

For the record, I’ve dabbled in Duolingo many times since I first heard of it around 10 years ago. Often it would mean downloading the app on my phone, doing one of the language modules (generally Japanese or Italian for me) and thinking, “This is so easy! I could easily do this every day!”

I would continue that habit for 2 or 3 more days, and then never open the app again — quietly letting it sit on my phone unused for a number of weeks before inevitably deleting it and admitting defeat.

I guess the question is: Why is it so hard to do something that is beneficial, productive and adds value to my life? And how did I change from not being able to make it past 3 days, to having it become a part of my daily routine?

In my life I’ve found building new habits excruciatingly difficult and shaking bad ones even harder. But the secret to my 100 day Duolingo streak was a pretty simple concept.

Habit stacking.

You may have read the very popular self-help book ‘Atomic Habits’ by James Clear, which details the concept of breaking habits into small pieces every day.

Atomic Habits is a great book to read if you want simple self-improvement tips.

Think of it like this. You can have a coffee every day with no sugars, or you can have a coffee every day with 2 sugars. You won’t see a difference after 1 day, or even 1 week. But after a year, the 2 sugars will add up to 730 spoons of sugar, but the 0 sugars will still be 0.

This idea of compounding habits leading to compounding returns (for better or worse) is the fundamental pillar of ‘Atomic Habits,’ and habit stacking is a method Clear illustrates to help make doing positive things easier.

Habits compound. For better or worse.

Essentially, I paired the habit of Duolingo with my nightly routine of brushing my teeth. Every night whenever I picked up my toothbrush, I would do a Japanese lesson on Duolingo. I was also lucky that my local cafe (Black Gold in Richmond) had a very friendly Japanese barista (Hi Miyu!) who was very happy to converse with me and help me learn.

Over time, the two habits of brushing my teeth and learning Japanese on Duolingo became stacked habits. I couldn’t reach for my toothbrush without having Duolingo going — it felt empty and silent.

Basically, I combined two healthy and positive habits into one linked habit, which had positive flow-ons too. For example, once I had finished the Duolingo module, I’d feel a sense of accomplishment and achievement. There was a finality to finishing a lesson (which usually takes about 2-5 minutes) that satisfied me.

That meant I could put my phone away without the urge to scroll through any social media apps or do anything else that would be a negative time-sink. For the record, I’ve removed all social media apps from my phone to prevent this too.

From there, I get into bed and read books or comics on my iPad to wind down. My iPad has its notifications silenced and thus there is no distraction. Reading makes me naturally wind down, my eyes close over, and I fall asleep within 30 minutes or so.

In the past, my nighttime routine would’ve looked more like:

1. Watch TV until I’m tired.

2. Go on my phone scrolling until I’m more tired.

3. Try to sleep, but be too buzzed from my phone.

4. Pick up my phone again and continue scrolling.

5. Eventually fall asleep, but way too late, leading to sleeping in and wasting days.

If you live your life like this… don’t.

I’m disappointed in myself for living that way for so long, because I feel so much better now after about a year of this new nighttime routine. My cravings for social media are disappearing. My sleep is significantly better — I wake naturally at a good time and get out for a walk before 8am, and my Japanese vocabulary is significantly improved (and of course, my teeth are clean and white 😂)

If you want to learn a new language, or any new skill, pairing it with an existing positive habit is probably a great way to do it. I can’t wait to hit a 200 day Duolingo streak, because there’s no way I want to let that go now!

Let me know what habits you want to build in 2025!

Mike Liberale

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Hey! Thanks so much for reading my blog. どうもありがとうございます！

I’m all over the internet doing dumb stuff that I think is cool.

My main YouTube channel has new content every week on pop culture analysis and thoughts. Here’s a random video you might like to check out:

I’m also working quietly on a second channel where I talk more about my learnings on productivity and creativity. You can find it below. This week I did a video talking about Haruki Murakami’s book, Novelist as a Vocation, where he discusses creativity and criticism. You can watch that here:

My Harry Potter fan fiction podcast will be back very soon with Sam Garlepp, who is currently selling tickets to his comedy festival show, so go grab some!